ELLE's secret weapon, PR director Erin Kaplan, brings her sleek style to the streets of The City

As ELLE's PR director, Erin Kaplan juggles editors' TV spots and public appearances and generally makes the rest of us look good—all while staying safely behind the scenes. This fall, however, the spotlight swerved her way as she joined the cast of MTV's The City. (The season finale will air on December 1.) "It's been an eye-opener, to say the least," Kaplan says. "I don't even like looking at the photo on my driver's license. Now I'm on a billboard in the middle of New York City." Luckily, her wardrobe—easy, streamlined pieces with short hemlines and tailored touches, plus a budget-blowing heel collection—was already up to the task. Along the way, Kaplan picked up a few how-to-look-great-on-TV tricks: "No white, no prints, no quarter-length skirts—they cut you off—lots of bright color, and always, always get a blow-out," she says. "I wish I'd known all that before we filmed 10 episodes!"